Empowering unity: challenges and opportunities in India’s electricity sector

The 10th National Conference is not a routine sitting. It is a return to the city where EEFI was founded in 1984, and a homage to Comrade E. Balanandan, founding President, in his birth-centenary year.

The NDA years have put corporate profit above public power. Coal-import invoices, solar-farm contracts, the National Monetisation Pipeline, coal blocks sold cheap, border and “renewable” clearances written for a few houses — these are not accidents. They are a policy.

More than half of generation is already private. Renewables are almost wholly private. Installed capacity is above 4.5 lakh MW; peak demand has not crossed 2.5 lakh MW; yet load is cut and the exchange price has touched ₹18–20 a unit. Transmission is being bid out under TBCB with public-bank money, and 28,500 circuit kilometres are listed for sale. Distribution amendments have been held only by the all-India unity of employees and engineers.

Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand have seen ESMA. Farmers have stood on the same demand: withdraw the Electricity Act amendments. The Nagpur convention of NCCOEEE fixed the next dates with the central trade unions and a separate power-sector strike. Contract labour must be organised. Communal division must be answered with class unity.

Kerala remains the public alternative: lowest AT&C losses, full electrification, assembly resolutions against the Amendment Bill, a CAPEX smart-meter path that does not hand metering to a vendor. That is the benchmark this conference carries back to every state.